D.A. claims drug agent acted as a "cowboy"

Published 4:00 am, Wednesday, October 19, 2005

(10-19) 14:00 PDT SAN JOSE -- A Santa Clara County prosecutor told a San Jose jury today that a state narcotics agent acted as a "cowboy" when he killed a man in a case of mistaken identity and should be found guilty of manslaughter.

Liroff also accused Walker's colleagues of withholding crucial information from investigators. "They circled their wagons to protect their own," he said.

Walker's trial marks just the second time in more than three decades that a law-enforcement officer has faced a criminal charge for a killing in the South Bay.

Walker, 34, has pleaded not guilty to a charge of voluntary manslaughter that was contained in an indictment returned last year by a Santa Clara County criminal grand jury.

Prosecutors blamed the death on a tragic collision of circumstances. On one hand, state narcotics and parole agents were hampered by poor organization, faulty communication equipment and bad decision-making, according to Liroff, who has described the state agents as "Keystone Kops."

Walker said he fired in self-defense, fearing Cardenas was armed with a gun. No weapon was found, and three witnesses testified to the grand jury that the man's hands were empty.

San Jose police detectives called in to investigate the shooting later found a black folding knife in the front left pocket of Cardenas' bloody pants that Walker testified might have been the object he thought was a gun.

The killing happened after a team of state narcotics and parole agents mistook Cardenas for fugitive parolee David Gonzales during a San Jose stakeout. This triggered a wild car-and-foot chase through downtown that ended with Walker running after Cardenas down an alley where the man jumped a chain-link fence.

During the grand jury's rare public inquiry, the agent testified he had fired five shots in two volleys through the chain-link fence after the fleeing man twice twisted to attempt a "hip shot" with a small, dark handgun.

Walker's attorney has pointed out that Cardenas, a small-time drug dealer, was high on methamphetamine and had a small plastic baggie of the drug in his silver-blue minivan.

Cardenas' estranged wife also testified that she had obtained a domestic violence arrest warrant against him, and that he'd repeatedly threatened that it would be "all your fault" if police tried to stop him.